I occasionally notice that it wets the floor. Thanks to the wisdom I derived from posts on this forum I decided to investigate the drain. I took the inside panel out and found that the floor of the freezer was frozen with about a 1/2 inch of water. I carefully warmed and chipped the ice out and was able to get the drain open with warm water. Interestingly, I discovered some "extra parts" in the frozen water. There was a small sheet metal screw frozen in the ice. This must have existed from the factory since I've never opened the unit before. Everything now flows to the drain cup under the unit freely.

I have no doubt that this will solve the problem for a while. My question is this: What caused the problem in the first place? There didn't appear to be a blockage of any kind. While I may have solved the effect of the problem, I can't help but feel that I haven't solved the cause of the problem.

Any ideas on solving the realproblem here? What did I do to offend the freezer?

Defrost drains clog up for various reasons, gunk in the water from mold, etc.....A pea or something could have gotten in there. Perhaps next time you will be able to see what stopped it up. Anything in the drain pan under the box to give you a clue???

Well, it's time for me to update this thread after almost a year. The drain hole freeze-up problem continues to repeat itself every 6 months. So I suppose it needs the "drain heater" that I've heard mentioned. I've checked the parts catalog online via this web site, but don't see that a drain heater is offered for this model. Is this mythical drain heater a model specific item, or a generic part?

Well as promised here's the update: I installed the band-ait kit, which is essentially just a strip of aluminum. After 10 months, the drain hole has not frozen over. Success!! Thank you very much for your assistance!

Now the bad news, the freezer itself is acting up again and won't cool to below 32F. About 10 months ago we had the same issue and the Sears technician diagnosed it as a freon leak in the evaporator and replaced the evaporator. Now the problem has resurfaced just after our 5 year warranty on the freezer's freon system expires, and the 90 day warranty has expired on the technicians repair.

I have never hated an appliance as much as I hate this Kenmore. In it's 5 year life, it's needed some form of repair (some minor, some major) 5 times.

If the model number starts with 253. , it was built by Frigidaire/Electrolux. so basically it's a... "Big Steaming Pile of Monkey Dung"

nick

____________________" Giving numerical data to Sears management is like giving a monkey a machine gun. No one knows for certain what will happen, but you can be sure of two things... It will be real messy, and only the monkey will be unharmed"

So that I may be educated and prepared for my next service appointment, please indulge the following history of my last service appointment from Sears. I respectfully request the tutelage and wisdom of the slayers of wayward appliances.

Technician #1 Arrives: He opens the door and takes a temperature reading and notes the absence of frost on the evaporator coils. He then closes the door. Diagnosis time: 60 seconds. He issues the following diagnosis: The compressor likely overheated and contaminated the entire closed system with oil. He indicates that almost everything int the closed system will need to be replaced (Evaporator, Condensor, compressor, etc). He issues a repair order for about $1,200 (for my $650 freezer) and says not to worry because I'm still under manufacturer warranty. He says it will never work right again unless everything is replaced. No cost to me. I say, uh OK. Wouldn't it be cheaper to replace the freezer? Nope. It don't work that way. He ordered the parts and said another technician will return in a week with the parts.

Technician #2 Arrives: He looks at the pile of boxes of replacement parts and says "What the heck? This is an all day-two man job!" I'm sympathetic, but powerless to solve their staffing problems. He instead installs a "test fitting" on the compressor and reports that there isn't any freon in the system, and that all it needs is a freon charge ane he'll be on his way. I'm no appliance repairman, but the troubleshooter in me asks: "Well, where did the freon go? Wouldn't the absence of freon be a symptom of another problem, like a leak?" He reports that it's not uncommon for appliances to need a freon recharge every 2 years because they just "naturally loose freon". Again, I'm not an appliance repair technician, but I find this very hard to believe. At my insistence, he does some further investigation and locates a leak in the evaporator and replaces it.

10 months later - The problem resurfaces and I have an appointment next week. I appear to have 2 months left on my 5yr "Closed system" manufacturer warranty, or I would have called another shop.

My question is thus: Was technician #1's comment that without replacing the entire closed system, "it will never work right again" true? I know nothing about "oil-contamination", nor how he determined it to be contaminated. For what it's worth, technican #1 was a 25 year veteran of appliance repair. Technician #2 reported he had about 7 years of experience in the industry.

I don't do sealed system work, so don't know about changing out complete sealed system but have heard others suggest that with the new 134a refrigerant that if you have a leak moisture would contaminate the system and could cause problems if all sealed system parts aren't changed or at least flushed out very good.

I do know tech#2 needs some edumacation!!!!!! You not really knowing anything about sealed systems knew more then this moron!!!! The sealed system is called that for a reason, "It is sealed!!!!". If the refrigerant has leaked out then the system is no longer sealed, (IE: it has a leak somewhere that needs to be found and repaired or recharging will just leak out again in no time at all), as the tech#2 supposedly found in the evaporator.

Maybe tech#2 did a bad job on installing the new evaporator and his connections leaked or he didn't really find the actual original leak and only installed the evaporator to shut you up????

If you can help it, don't let them send tech#2 back out to work on this, try to get the first tech back, it sounds like he knows what he's doing.